Pages

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Swedish Pancakes with Lingonberry Butter

I can remember, a couple of decades back, the first time that I ate Swedish Pancakes. It was at the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) in Lake Tahoe, California. I remember how much I loved the tartness of the lingonberries, mixed with the whipped butter. There is an IHOP in my hometown, but it's one that I avoid. Suffice it to say that my few experiences at that location had more unpleasant memories of sticky seats, poor service and my germophobia kicked in to high gear.

Last November, I discovered a restaurant across from the hotel where I stayed in San Francisco. According to the reviews, their signature dish is their Swedish Pancakes. My blogger friend, Monica, and I eagerly ordered a plate of the pancakes.

I was surprised to see them arrive like dollar pancakes-- only flatter. They were good, but they just didn't pack that "wow" factor that I experienced in Lake Tahoe. I've done a bit of internet research, to find out which version of Swedish pancakes are most authentic, and I'm still not sure. I've learned that a Swedish Plett pan is used to make the round versions, which I don't own and I don't plan to invest in one (my gadget shelve are overflowing, as it is).

The October 2010 issue of Cook's Country Magazine had a recipe for Swedish Pancakes, that resembled the IHOP version. My mouth watered, at the mere memory of the crepe version of these pancakes. I wanted to make them that very day, except I didn't have three of the key ingredients-- club soda, Wondra instant flour and lingonberry jam. After bookmarking the recipe, a few months passed before I spotted lingonberry jam at my local Cost Plus World Market.

I was surprised that neither my husband nor son had tasted lingonberries jam before. They remind me, a bit of cranberry relish. The berries are a beautiful red color, and the jam is a perfect balance of tart and sweet. The batter for the pancakes was actually quite simple to do:

Why use instant flour? According to Cook's Country, "To avoid a lengthy resting period, we used instant flour in the batter, which dissolves faster than regular flour and requires less whisking." The reason for using club soda, "unlike American pancakes, Swedish pancakes contain no baking powder or baking soda. To get a little lift without breaking tradition, we added some club soda to the batter."

This recipes requires nine tablespoons of butter. Yes, nine. Four of the tablespoons butter are melted and cooled, and added to the batter. The remaining butter is used to brush the pan. I decided to do a quick clarifying of the butter for the pan, but skimming off the milk solids (clarified butter doesn't burn as easily). Other ingredients includes eggs, and half and half. (Scroll to the end of this post for a printable recipe.)

I used two pans to make the crepes all at once. Cook's Country uses a non-stick 9" pan. I also used a French crepe pan-- I wanted to compare which pan worked best. I had my "work station" close to the stove and the oven preheated on WARM.

The art of making crepes takes a bit of practice. It's important to have the pan just hot enough that the butter sizzles when you brush it in the pan.

Using a 1/3 cup measurer, add the batter to the center of the pan and then tilt it so the batter spreads evenly. I use a silicone spatula to loosen the edges. Once the crepe has browned on the bottom, grab it and flip it over.
NOTE: This batter is so delicate, that it was more of a challenge to work with. I couldn't flip these by tossing the pan.

On the left is my De Buyer Crepe Pan, and the non-stick is on the right. Both pans worked well, though the crepe pan browned more in the middle.

I didn't bother covering the pancakes with foil, and they stayed quite warm in the oven.

On a whim, I decided to take a stick of softened butter and then I added about 4 Tablespoons of jam...

It was time to serve these delicate pancakes, but I wanted to take the first taste...

Photographing these proved to be a challenge-- I didn't want to eat cold pancakes, and I was really hungry! I had to work fast, so the photos are up to my personal standards of plating and lighting.

The lingonberry butter has melted...

I eagerly take my first bite...

TASTING NOTE: The crepe was delicate, almost velvety in my mouth. I had notes of custard, butter, tart and sweet red berries. Fond memories of Lake Tahoe came flooding back, with the first swallow. Cook's Country did it! There are moments when worries about fat grams need to be set aside. This is one of them. I fully admit that I ate six of these, and I enjoyed every single bite. Both my husband and son really enjoyed these. The club soda really does the trick, giving these pancakes a "lift". Will I make these again? You bet! MAKE AHEAD Swedish pancakes can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for up to 1 month. Layer cooled pancakes between parchment paper, wrap in plastic, and transfer to zipper-lock bag. To serve, microwave stack of 3 pancakes on 50 percent power until heated through, 10 to 20 seconds.

Now that I have leftover lingonberry jam, I'm on the search of a good Swedish Meatball recipe. Lingonberry jam is a unexpected and delightful condiment to this comfort food. Swedish meatballs in June? Yes, if you live on my part of the Central Coast of California, you are experiencing overcast skies, cooler temps and even unexpected rain. Me thinks my grilling season is going to be delayed until at least July!

These look so wonderful. I recently had my first Swedish pancakes with lingonberry butter made from a real Swedish cook who owned a doughnut shop on my town. These look exactly like his and I'm sure they taste as delicious too. Unfortunately he suddenly closed up his shop. I will have to try your recipe. Thanks!

I love Swedish pancakes, though I've never had them with lignonberry butter. I remember my burnt fingers after making them last year, but the delicious confection outweighs a bit of physical discomfort, lol. Your photos are wonderful.

Your tutorial is excellent, Debby. The crepes can sometimes be a little tricky to make so I usually make extra batter to replace the few I don't flip over right. Adding a little club soda and clarify the butter are two excellent suggestions for this recipe.

Lingonberries and butter make the perfect topping for this delicate pancakes. My son and I always order these pancakes when we go to the local breakfast place.

Nice pictures. Swedish pancakes (plett) are usually small. Very easy to make with a plett pan (plattar). I have at least 8 vintage pans. Here are pictures of the pans: http://www.food.com/bb/viewtopic.zsp?t=285035. Chees!

This recipe sounds so good! Even if it seems to be very different from the one my Mamma used to serve when I grew up. I have seen that Americans serve this with the lingonberries, while in Sweden we eat pancakes with strawberry jam or just caster sugar. The other big difference is that we never have 'our' pancakes for breakfast, always as dessert, mainly on Thursdays after soup (which for some reason always were yellow pea soup). I l-o-v-e your blog! Thank you so much for sharing! I have just recently started my own food blog and are looking for inspiration all over and your blog is certainly a big one!

Just tried these this morning, and it was really fun to read your review! We loved these! I read an article yesterday about crepes vs. swedish pancakes, and besides the differences in origin and when/how they're eaten, the author compared a ton of recipes and found them nearly identical but for the flour/water ratio, which correlates with these being thicker, which also works well for the pans used to cook crepes vs. these. We love crepes and we loved these too! We would prefer them with butter and syrup vs. the lingonberry jam we had this morning, but I also read that lots of Swedes don't have them woth lingonberry jam either, which BTW someone called the "ketchup" of Sweden :). I am looking forward to trying the Cooks illustreated recipe for Swedish Meatballs with the jam though...yay!!! Loved your review, loved this recipe, and I love Cook's Country and their cheery photos and delicious food! Your butter idea is brilliant too!

PS These are only 100 calories each so two is a very moderate 200 cal...we had ours with fruit,coffee and yogurt so pretty healthy! My www.bigoven.com software automatically calculates calories, which I ocassionally get curious about!

Welcome!

Welcome to my internet kitchen. Please, sit back and relax, and watch me make delicious food and bakery recipes. Most of my recipes are simple, flavorful meals-- and a few baked treats. I focus on using fresh, seasonal ingredients and I try to avoid using boxed mixes and processed foods. I'm having fun learning how to cook like my grandmother once did-- from scratch! I hope that my step-by-step photos will inspire a timid cook to try them. Even if you're a seasoned cook, hopefully you'll learn a new tip or two.

If you have any questions,or just want to say "hello", please feel free to email me: foodiewife@gmail.com

For Potato Lovers (Like Me)

Grab A Button

Do you "Pinterest"?

Privacy Policy

This policy is valid from 30 August 2014

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.